Michael DeMaio, 55, is arraigned on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, on charges of criminal attempt at murder and first degree assault after his wife, Diane, was beaten with a baseball bat in their Greenwich, Conn., home Tuesday evening. Representing DeMaio is public defender Howard Ehring.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

Greenwich police are investigating an attempted murder of 261 Round Hill Road woman. A person familiar with the case said she was bludgeoned with a baseball bat during a domestic dispute Tuesday night and is in critical condition.

Photo: Greenwich Time

Greenwich police are investigating an attempted murder of 261 Round...

Greenwich police stand outside the fate at 261 Round Hill Road on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013. Greenwich police are investigating an attempted murder at the house. A person familiar with the case said she was bludgeoned with a baseball bat during a domestic dispute Tuesday night and is in critical condition.
Photo: Greenwich Time

Greenwich police stand outside the fate at 261 Round Hill Road on...

Police vehicles are parked outside 261 Round Hill Road in Greenwich, Conn., where Michael DeMaio, 55, was arrested and charged with criminal attempt at murder and first degree assault after his wife, Diane DeMaio, was bludgeoned with a baseball bat Tuesday evening.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

Greenwich Police Officer Thomas Huestis was the first officer to respond to the home on Round Hill Road, finding the bloodied victim.
Photo: Greenwich Police Department

Greenwich Police Officer Thomas Huestis was the first officer to...

Michael DeMaio, 55, is arraigned on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, on charges of criminal attempt at murder and first degree assault after his wife, Diane, was beaten with a baseball bat in their Greenwich, Conn., home Tuesday evening. Representing DeMaio is public defender Howard Ehring.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

Michael DeMaio, 55, is arraigned on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, on charges of criminal attempt at murder and first degree assault after his wife, Diane, was beaten with a baseball bat in their Greenwich, Conn., home Tuesday evening. Representing DeMaio is public defender Howard Ehring.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

Michael DeMaio, 55, is arraigned on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, on charges of criminal attempt at murder and first degree assault after his wife, Diane, was beaten with a baseball bat in their Greenwich, Conn., home Tuesday evening. Representing DeMaio is public defender Howard Ehring.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

Michael DeMaio, 55, is arraigned on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, on charges of criminal attempt at murder and first degree assault after his wife, Diane, was beaten with a baseball bat in their Greenwich, Conn., home Tuesday evening. Representing DeMaio is public defender Howard Ehring.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

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GREENWICH -- From the outside, it exudes unbridled opulence for such a blue-blooded Greenwich address, imposing eagles carved from stone perched atop the mansion's gated entrance like sentries.

Winding past the estate and beneath a lush canopy of trees is Round Hill Road -- just up the street from where George H.W. Bush's courtship of Barbara Bush originated.

But as evening fell Tuesday, the showplace property took on elements more out of place to the patrician neighborhood than its fountain framed by statues of cherubs -- a mobile crime scene unit and yellow police tape.

What police say they discovered inside the $7.3 million estate astonished even the most unflappable investigators on a local force that has grown all too accustomed to responding to domestic violence incidents.

Diane DeMaio, 54, a local nutritionist and mother of three adult children, lay motionless in a pool of blood in an upstairs closet larger than many bedrooms in town, even by Greenwich standards. Three ice packs formed a makeshift pillow under DeMaio's badly disfigured head, which police say was allegedly bludgeoned with a baseball bat by her unemployed husband, Michael DeMaio, in a crime of passion.

"That monster hit her and she's dying," DeMaio's mother, Gloria Sica, told the first officers at the scene, according to an affidavit obtained by Greenwich Time.

The first officer on the scene drew his gun on Michael DeMaio, who was unarmed, and shouted for him to get down on the ground. With what police described as eerie calm, DeMaio complied and confessed to striking his wife numerous times on the head and body with a baseball bat that was stored in the master bedroom closet after he became angry with her.

Handcuffed and down on the ground, DeMaio, 55, turned to police and said, "I lost it, I just lost it."

Diane DeMaio's husband became enraged shortly after learning from his wife that she was leaving him, Greenwich Time has learned from a person familiar with the details of the criminal investigation.

With his wife listed in critical condition early Wednesday at Stamford Hospital, where she was said to have undergone emergency surgery, DeMaio was arraigned on charges of attempted murder and first-degree assault at state Superior Court in Stamford. No plea was entered.

"It's horrific," said First Selectman Peter Tesei, the town's chief elected official and police commissioner. "The initial report that I received was that there was a domestic dispute. Later in the evening, it was reported to me that it was a husband and wife situation, and I don't know how to put it because it's so awful, the wife was critically beaten."

According to court documents, police responded to the scene at 261 Round Hill Road at 6:11 p.m. Tuesday on a report of a domestic dispute with injuries. Police refused to say whether a wooden or metal bat was used in the attack.

Witnesses of the crime privately told the newspaper that they were concerned that Diane DeMaio would not survive the attack and that she likely suffered brain damage.

DeMaio was transferred to unspecified acute-care hospital by mid-day, multiple sources told the newspaper. An update on DeMaio's condition was not available as of publication time Wednesday night.

Greenwich police Officer Thomas Huestis stated in the affidavit that an elderly woman was on the second floor of the home hysterically screaming "help me, my daughter is dying," and he rushed to help. The victim's eyes were open and she stated "what, hello, what's going on," and her eyes closed. The officer tried to put pressure on the large laceration in the victim's skull, but felt it was soft.

Officer Albert Moavero placed Michael DeMaio, a licensed pilot, under arrest and he was held overnight on a cash bond of $1 million.

Judge Thomas Colin kept DeMaio's bond at $1 million in cash after a prosecutor said the attempted murder charge against DeMaio could turn into a murder charge. The case was transferred to the Part A docket at the Stamford courthouse where the most serious cases in the area are adjudicated.

Public Defender Howard Ehring, who represented DeMaio for his bond hearing, asked Colin to lower the bond to $250,000, saying that DeMaio had no criminal record and has lived in Greenwich for 23 years.

In court, DeMaio appeared very subdued, only saying, "Yes, your honor" after Colin asked if he understood a protective order the judge had just signed prohibiting DeMaio from having any contact whatsoever with his wife. The order also prohibits him from coming within 100 yards of his wife.

Colin ordered that if DeMaio made bond that he would be electronically monitored with a GPS tracking device that would provide "safe zones" for his wife.

DeMaio is due back in court Sept. 18.

Neighbors say the family had seemed perfectly nice, with Michael DeMaio cutting his own grass and the couple's daughter taking voice lessons. The couple's children, who are adults, were not in the house at the time of the attack. For the most part though, they kept to themselves. Despite living across the street for the past 14 years, a neighboring family said they had never met the couple or knew their names.

The 3.6-acre estate has frequently been photographed by media to demonstrate McMansion excess in Greenwich.

On Diane DeMaio's nutritionist business website, she described her work with clients. "I integrate new research with old techniques to facilitate my patients in improving their overall well-being and health. Many of the clients I consult with suffer from a wide variety of clinical conditions including, but not limited to, weight loss, detoxification, Type II Diabetes and skin conditions. I also work with children to address their hyperactivity using nutritional approaches, as well as helping them channel their excess energy through the use of activities and exercise."

Below her photo on that website is a quotation from English philosopher John Locke, "A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world."